The wait for Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu & Eevee continues as we slowly learn more about the
game.
We already have the basics thanks to its initial reveal and the Treehouse segment at E3, but
new trailers were recently released that provided a few more tidbits.
And many of the bigger details were blink and you miss it moments.
So it’s time to bring out the old Analysis Machine to see what secrets and hidden details
we can find.
Keep in mind though that we won’t be looking at anything that was already covered in our
previous analysis.
With that said, let’s go.
And we’ll begin with some of the locations shown during the three different trailers.
The Japanese Gym Trailer begins with the trainer in his room and naturally he has a Nintendo
Switch.
But this is also one of the few times where the TV is in the middle of the room rather
than along a wall and the extra detail from being on a console allows us to see the remote.
Yeah, this is big stuff.
What’s really cool though is an image released that shows off the full room.
Here we can see a Pikachu plush on the shelf, which might even become an Eevee in that version,
though we don’t know for sure.
Even better is the poster on the wall showing a battle between Gengar and Nidorino, the
same fight that took place during the opening movie of Gen 1.
It’s a pretty cool call back.
But in the trailer itself, we see the trainer turn as if some is calling him.
And that might be the new rival as we see him enter your room.
It’s quite likely that he’s coming here to take you to Oak’s as you both are supposed
to receive your first Pokémon today.
Moving on to Pewter City, we got our first look at the Museum of Science and it’s been
expanded quite a bit.
There’s now a large Aerodactyl display hanging from the ceiling rather than its skeletal
structure although the Kabutops fossil is still featured.
Meanwhile smaller fossils can be spotted in the display cases.
It’s just a little extra step to make it feel more like a museum.
Now we’ve already seen and talked about traveling east of Pewter City and into Mt.
Moon, but Let’s Go is ostensibly a remake of Pokémon Yellow where Team Rocket of the
anime would appear in certain areas.
We wondered if Jessie and James would appear here and thanks to the latest trailer, that’s
been absolutely confirmed.
Which means, unless new encounters are added, we’ll also find them in the Rocket Hideout,
the Pokémon Tower, and Silph Co.
Maybe we’ll see them a bit more than before, but it is a nice touch that James has his
rose from the anime and his sprite from Yellow.
One of the bigger mysteries though is in Cerulean City where we can clearly see the Bike Shop.
This leads to the obvious question, can you actually ride a bike?
We already know Cycling Road has been changed so a bike isn’t necessary and riding on
certain Pokémon seems to negate the need for a bike.
So is there some other purpose or will players actually ride a bike in Let’s Go?
We just don’t know.
All we can see is that there’s a Doduo on the sign to give it a bit more pep and in
the background we can see an Oddish hanging out with a Lass.
Moving on, we see a battle in the Rocket reveal trailer that looks to take place in the Pokémon
Mansion considering how rundown it is.
There’s not much else to say as we expected to explore at some point.
What is unexpected is this battle on one of the water routes where the trainer takes on
a level 47 Wartortle with another Pokémon waiting in the wings after its defeated.
From everything we could find, this appears to be an entirely new trainer.
There’s no sign of them in Red, Blue, or Yellow or even the Game Boy Advance remakes.
In fact, this is the same level as your rival’s Pokémon before you enter Victory Road.
This could mean that later trainers have been rebalanced with higher level Pokémon in order
to making grinding less of hassle than it was in Kanto originally.
It could also indicate a new location, but that seems less likely as the new map of Kanto
was revealed as well.
And that map definitely has some interesting things to discover as it is incredibly detailed.
In fact, all 151 Pokémon can be found on the map.
And while they might not all be in the location where they can be found, such as many of the
evolutions, most of them seem to be at least close.
And this includes Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle.
All three’s images are located in the exact same place they were received in Pokémon
Yellow.
And considering that Team Rocket appears in Mt.
Moon again, players will likely receive them in the same way.
Likewise, we can see Porygon above the Celadon Game Corner which could mean that it has to
be earned through games of chance once again.
A lot of Let’s Go might be different, but there’s still plenty that’s the same.
That said, the truck in Vermillion City that led to many rumors of Mew being underneath
is nowhere to be seen.
Perhaps Game Freak wanted to nip that aspect in the bud.
Besides, we already know where Mew is.
He’s in the Poké Ball Plus.
But in addition to the Pokémon on the map, we can see that most of the locations around
Kanto are still the same though there are a few differences.
For one, we can see how the Safari Zone has been changed to accomodate the Go Park, where
you can transfer your Pokémon from Go to Let’s Go.
There’s also no sign of the bonus Sevii Islands from the GBA remakes which isn’t
too surprising, but Cinnabar now features the volcano that destroys most of the island
in Gold and Silver.
It’s a nice attention to detail.
Except the S.S.
Anne is now landlocked because Cycling Road is no longer a bridge but a piece of land.
There’s no way for it to reach Johto.
So is it just a pleasure cruise now?
Eh, maybe a canal will be built in the 2 years between Kanto and Johto’s story.
But the trailers also reveal a little more about Let’s Go story.
Or at least some of the small changes introduced.
One of the first is the initial challenge from your rival after you receive either Pikachu
or Eevee.
But this battle also confirms that he will take the Pokémon opposite of what you chose.
Nothing too surprising, although there is another of Oak in front of three Pidgey.
We’re not sure if he’s trying to protect from wild Pokémon before you have your own
or if he’s demonstrating how to encounter and catch Pokémon.
What is shown is another scene back in the lab where we can see a solitary Poké Ball
on the nearby table.
More notable is the fact that the trainer doesn’t have either Pikachu or Eevee yet
so this is right as you’re about to receive it.
But what’s strange is that in the English trailer, there’s a scene where the trainer
is reaching toward the Poké Ball which begins to glow.
The trainer, your rival, and Oak all look shocked by that light, but this pulled-back
shot reveals that there are two more Poké Balls now.
One presumably has the rival’s Pokémon, but which one is in the third Ball?
We also see a bit more of the first encounter with either Pikachu or Eevee.
They come out of the tall grass and seem to have an immediate connection with the trainer.
Presumably, this is when Oak comes in and catches them to protect you before offering
that same Pokémon as your starter.
And the game certainly plays up the bond as we see them happily climbing all over the
trainer before he looks determined on a bridge.
Unfortunately, the angle of the camera makes hard to say where this exactly takes place.
But it does show that there are a few more minor cinematics throughout the game.
The trailers also provided another look at the Gyms.
First was the Pewter Gym, but this was shown off quite a bit during the Treehouse segment
at E3.
What is new though is a look at the actual battle with Brock.
We can see that he still only has two Pokémon and one has been defeated which is why Onix
is out.
Now the Onix may only be level 12, which is two levels lower than the original games,
but it’s the same level as in Pokémon Yellow creating another link to the idea that Let’s
Go is a remake of that game.
We then get to see the Cerulean Gym which has the same alcove for an audience like the
Pewter Gym.
What’s different are the diving boards with Swimmers on top while a shallow path leads
to Misty.
When you walk in front of these Swimmers, they will actually dive into the water before
challenging you, giving the Gym just a little more flair.
Beyond the aesthetic changes of these trainers, there are also now three of them rather than
the two of past games.
We see that one of them uses a Shellder at level 16, the same level as in Yellow.
But that original trainer also had a Horsea at 16 which likely means it belongs to the
additional trainer while the final trainer likely has a Goldeen at level 19.
We then see Misty standing in front of a mural of water Pokémon including Krabby, Starmie,
and Staryu along with a giant clam prop with a pearl inside.
In fact, the gym even has seaweed props all around to help sell the underwater vibe.
In Misty’s battle, she still only has two Pokémon with the first defeated.
However, the trailer never shows the level of her Starmie preventing us from comparing
to what it was in Yellow.
But the Team Rocket reveal trailer gave us a little something extra from Gyms.
When you defeat a gym, you actually celebrate with your Pokémon.
It’s great seeing your trainer clap Pikachu’s tail and adds just that extra bit of personality
and a bond with these starters.
And that’s shown throughout these trailers as there’s a scene of Pikachu checking out
a fountain making it seem like there will be specific interactions with your Pokémon
depending on the location.
In fact, the scene on the bridge that we mentioned earlier might be another example of these
scenes.
It’s then that the Japanese trailer shows the transition of Pikachu or Eevee climbing
from their resting spot and onto the trainer’s arm.
There’s a girl nearby too and she could either be inconsequential or the one that
informs players that they can interact like this.
Here we see more of the petting, and the ability to feed them berries, at least based on the
icon in the bottom right, but it’s still unclear if there’s any kind of tangible
benefit.
We know you can dress them up which is just fun so maybe it’s simply just a way to bond
with Pikachu or Eevee.
But speaking of dressing up, a new image reveals that the costumes aren’t sets but individual
pieces.
Hats, glasses, clothes, and accessories can all be mixed and matched, both for your Pokémon
and the trainer.
It’s good to see that players will have the option to change up their style.
However, what’s most interesting to the long-term of Pokémon is the fact that Eevee
has seen a slight design change, at least if it’s female.
The white pattern on its tail is now shaped like a heart if it’s a girl, making for
an obvious signifier like Pikachu’s.
And before we move on, we also get our first look at Eevee in the male trainer’s outfit.
Not much else to say other than, yeah, it’s super cute.
Now we’ve mentioned it a few times, but the Rocket reveal trailer showed off a lot
of new gameplay to be excited about.
For one, it provided our first look at the title screen as well as the save file screen
when loading up the game.
This supplies the typical information like how long you’ve played and how many Pokémon
you’ve either caught or seen along with what we assume is a spot for your location,
although it’s blank here.
But the background of this screen also clearly shows the area you saved specifically which
is a neat touch.
This trailer also shows Pokémon can be tricky to catch, just like in Go.
If you mess up your throws or they escape the Poké Ball, there’s a chance that the
Pokémon will flee, just like what we see with Mr. Mime.
It’s something we’ve always assumed, but it’s still good to see it confirmed as it
also shows that catching certain Pokémon could be more difficult than they first appear.
Speaking of which, there’s a showdown with two of the Legendary Birds.
First up is the battle with Zapdos in the Power Plant.
And it is a battle as players must fight it before they can catch it.
We think it’ll work like Go where you have to defeat it completely before getting the
chance to throw Poké Balls at it.
We don’t see any of the battle with Moltres, but it looks like it still resides on Victory
Road and will follow the same pattern as Zapdos.
Finally, we got a look at a new minigame that seems to take place in Go Park and involves
Pikachu herding.
There’s 2 minutes on a timer in the top right but we’re not entirely sure what you’re
being timed on.
Do you have to herd as many Pikachu as you can in that time or do you only have two minutes
to obtain a certain amount of Pikachu?
Either way, it’s something to break up the typical gameplay.
Alright, we’re almost done here, but there’s still a few things that we wanted to point
out.
One is an Easter Egg spotted by Pokéxperto on Twitter that noticed the rivals house in
Kanto changes colors depending on whether it’s in English or Japanese.
In Japan, the color is green while it’s blue in the English version.
It’s a nice nod to the original Red and Green versions in Japan with Green being the
rival’s canon name.
But because Red and Blue were the first versions released in English, the rival’s name became
Blue.
So making the rival’s house those colors is quite fitting, especially since the trainer’s
house is red.
And finally, the official Japanese Pokémon blog confirmed some of the exclusive Pokémon
in each version.
Oddish, Sandshrew, and Growlithe can only be caught in Let’s Go Pikachu while Bellsprout,
Vulpix, and Meowth are only found in Let’s Go Eevee.
So now you’ll have a better idea of which version you’d prefer.
Otherwise, Pokémon Let’s Go continues to look good.
It might not be the next gen game that some would like, but as a reimagining of Yellow
with mechanics taken from Pokémon Go, it seems like it’ll be a lot of fun.
There are plenty of faithful elements to be found here.
Of course, if we missed anything let us know in the comments.
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